Burned
by Candycane and Bubblegum
Summary: Kalona is sent to Otherworld to finish Neferet's villainous deeds. Will he kill her, like Neferet wants? Zoey's stress levels keep building. To top everything off with her favorite brown pop, she just died.


_**DISCLAIMER:**_** We do NOT own the House of Night series. Everything in the House of Night universe belongs to P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast.**

**Summary: Kalona is transported to Otherworld in order to fulfill Neferet's villainous deeds. Will he end up killing her, just like Neferet wanted him to? Zoey's stress levels just keep on building. To top everything off, she just died.**

**To see the original link of the first chapter of Burned, go to http://www(DOT)houseofnightseries(DOT)com/pages/burnedxrpt(DOT)html**

**THIS IS THE ACTUAL FIRST CHAPTER OF BURNED:**

Chapter One

Kalona lifted his hands. He didn't hesitate. There was no doubt whatsoever in his mind about what he had to do. He would not allow anything or anyone to get in his way, and this human boy was standing between him and what he desired. He didn't particularly want to kill the boy; he didn't particularly want the boy alive, either. It was a simple necessity. He didn't feel remorse or regret. As had been the norm during the centuries since he'd fallen, Kalona _felt _very little. So, indifferently, the winged immortal twisted the boy's neck and put an end to his life.

_"No!"_

The anguish of that one word froze Kalona's heart. He dropped the boy's lifeless body and whirled around in time to see Zoey racing toward him. Their eyes met. In hers were despair and hatred. In his was an impossible denial. He tried to formulate the words that might make her understand— might make her forgive him. But there was nothing he could say to change what she had seen, and even if he could work the impossible, there was no time.

Zoey threw the full power of the element spirit at him.

It hit the immortal, striking him with force that was beyond physical. Spirit was his essence— his core— the element that had sustained him for centuries and with which he had always been most comfortable, as well as most powerful. Zoey's attack seared him. It lifted him with such force that he was hurled over the huge stone wall that separated the vampyres' island and the Gulf of Venice. The icy water engulfed him, smothering him. For an instant the pain within Kalona was so deadening that he didn't fight it. Perhaps he should let this terrible struggle for life and its trappings end. Perhaps, once again, he should allow himself to be vanquished by her. But less than a heartbeat after he had the thought, he _felt _it. Zoey's soul shattered and, as truly as his fall had carried him from one realm to another, her spirit departed this world.

The knowledge wounded him worse than had her blow against him.

Not Zoey! He'd never meant to cause her harm. Even through all of Neferet's machinations, through all of the Tsi Sgili's manipulations and plans, he'd held tight to the knowledge that, in spite of everything, he would use his vast immortal powers to keep Zoey safe because ultimately she was the closest he could come to Nyx in this realm— and this was the only realm left to him.

Fighting to recover from Zoey's attack, Kalona lifted his massive body from the clutching waves and realized the truth. Because of him, Zoey's spirit was gone, which meant she would die. With his first breath of air, he released a wrenching cry of despair, echoing her last word, _"No!"_

Had he really believed since his fall that he didn't truly have feelings? He'd been a fool and wrong, so very wrong. Emotions battered him as he flew raggedly just above the waterline, chipping away at his already wounded spirit, raging against him, weakening him, bleeding his soul. With blurred, blackened vision, he stared across the lagoon, squinting to see the lights that heralded land. He'd never make it there. It would have to be the palace. He had no choice. Using the last reserves of his strength, Kalona's wings beat against the frigid air, lifting him over the wall, where he crumpled to the frozen earth.

He didn't know how long he lay there in the cold darkness of the shattered night as emotions overwhelmed his shaken soul. Somewhere in the far reaches of his mind, he understood the familiarity of what had happened to him. He'd fallen again, only this time it was more in spirit than in body— though his body didn't seem his to command any longer either.

He felt her presence before she spoke. It had been like that between them from the first, whether he truly wished it or not— they simply sensed one another.

"You allowed Stark to bear witness to your killing of the boy!" Neferet's voice was more frigid than the winter sea.

Kalona turned his head so that he could see more than the toe of her stiletto shoe. He looked up at her, blinking to try to clear his vision.

"Accident." Finding his voice again he managed a rasping whisper. "Zoey should not have been there."

"Accidents are unacceptable, and I care not one bit that _she _was there. Actually, the result of what she saw is rather convenient."

"You know that her soul shattered?" Kalona hated the unnatural weakness in his voice and the strange lethargy in his body almost as much as he hated the effect Neferet's icy beauty had on him.

"I imagine most of the vampyres on the island know it. Typically for her, Zoey's spirit wasn't exactly quiet in its leave- taking. I wonder, though, how many of the vampyres also felt the blow the chit dealt you just before she departed." Neferet tapped her chin contemplatively with one long, sharp fingernail.

Kalona remained silent, struggling to center himself and draw together the ragged edges of his torn spirit, but the earth his body pressed against was too real, and he had not the strength to reach above and feed his soul from the wispy vestiges of the Otherworld that floated there.

"No, I don't imagine any of them felt it," Neferet continued, in her coldest, most calculating voice. "None of them are connected to Darkness, _to you, _as I am. Is that not so, my love?"

"We are uniquely connected," Kalona managed, though he suddenly wished the words were not true.

"Indeed . . ." she said, still distracted by her thoughts. Then Neferet's eyes widened as a new realization came to her. "I have long wondered how it was that A-ya managed to wound _you_, such a physically powerful immortal, badly enough that those ridiculous Cherokee hags could entrap you. I believe little Zoey has just provided the answer you've so carefully withheld from me. Your body _can _be damaged but only through your spirit. Isn't that fascinating?"

"I will heal." He put as much strength as possible in his voice.

"Return me to Capri and the castle there. Take me to the rooftop, as close to the sky as I can be, and I will regain my strength."

"I imagine you would— were I so inclined to do that. But I have other plans for you, my love." Neferet lifted her arms, extending them over him. As she continued to speak she began weaving her long fingers through the air, creating intricate patterns, like a spider spinning her web. "I will not allow Zoey to interfere with us ever again."

"A shattered soul is a death sentence. Zoey is no longer any threat to us," he said. With knowing eyes, Kalona watched Neferet. She drew to her a sticky blackness he recognized all too well. He'd spent lifetimes battling that Darkness before he embraced its cold power. It pulsed and fluttered familiarly, restlessly under her fingers. _She shouldn't be_ _able to command Darkness so tangibly. _The thought drifted like the echo of a death knell through his weary mind. _A High Priestess shouldn't_ _have such power._

But Neferet was no longer merely a High Priestess. She had grown beyond the boundaries of that role some time ago, and she had no trouble controlling the writhing blackness she conjured.

_She is becoming immortal, _Kalona realized, and with the realization, fear joined regret and despair and anger where they already simmered within the fallen Warrior of Nyx.

"One would think it would be a death sentence," Neferet spoke calmly as she drew more and more of the inky threads to her, "but Zoey has a terribly inconvenient habit of surviving. This time I am going to ensure she dies."

"Zoey's soul also has a habit of reincarnating," he said, purposefully baiting Neferet to try to throw off her focus.

"Then I will destroy her over and over again!" Neferet's concentration only increased with the anger his words evoked. The blackness she spun intensified, writhing with swollen power in the air around her.

"Neferet." He tried to reach her by using her name. "Do you truly understand what it is you are attempting to command?"

Her gaze met his, and, for the first time, Kalona saw the scarlet stain that nested in the darkness of her eyes. "Of course I do. It's what lesser beings call evil."

"I am not a lesser being, and I, too, have called it evil."

"Ah, not for centuries you haven't." Her laughter was vicious. "But it seems lately you've been living too much with shadows from your past instead of reveling in the lovely dark power of the present. I know who is to blame for that."

With a tremendous effort, Kalona pushed himself to a sitting position.

"No. I don't want you to move." Neferet flicked one finger at him, and a thread of darkness snaked around his neck, tightened, and jerked him down, pinning him to the ground again.

"What is it you want of me?" he rasped.

"I want you to follow Zoey's spirit to the Otherworld and be sure none of her _friends_"— she sneered the word—"manage to find a way to coax her to rejoin her body."

Shock jolted through the immortal. "I have been banished by Nyx from the Otherworld. I cannot follow Zoey there."

"Oh, but you are wrong, my love. You see, you always think too literally. Nyx ousted you— you fell— you cannot return. So you have believed for centuries that is that. Well, _you _literally cannot." She sighed dramatically as he stared at her blankly. "Your gorgeous body was banished, that's all. Did Nyx say anything about your immortal soul?"

"She need not say it. If a soul is separated from a body for too long, the body will die."

"But your body isn't mortal, which means it can be separated indefinitely from its soul without dying," she said.

Kalona struggled to keep the terror her words filled him with from his expression. "It is true that I cannot die, but that does not mean I will remain undamaged if my spirit leaves my body for too long." _I_ _could age . . . go mad . . . become a never dying shell of myself . . . _The possibilities swirled through his mind.

Neferet shrugged. "Then you will have to be sure you finish your task soon, so that you may return to your lovely immortal body before it is irreparably damaged." She smiled seductively at him. "I would very much dislike it if anything happened to your body, my love."

"Neferet, don't do this. You are putting into motion things that will require payment, the consequences of which even you will not want to face."

"Do _not _threaten me! I released you from your imprisonment. I loved you. And then I watched you fawn over that simpering teenager. I want her gone from my life! Consequences? I embrace them! I am not the weak, ineffective High Priestess of a rule- following goddess any longer. Don't you understand that? Had you not been so distracted by that child, you would know it without me telling you. I am an immortal, the same as you, Kalona!" Her voice was eerie, amplified with power. "We are perfectly matched. You used to believe that as well, and that is something you will believe again, when Zoey Redbird is no more."

Kalona stared at her, understanding that Neferet was utterly, truly mad, and wondering why that madness only served to feed her power and intensify her beauty.

"So this is what I have decided to do," she continued, speaking methodically. "I am going to keep your sexy, immortal body safely tucked away underground somewhere while your soul travels to the Otherworld and makes sure Zoey does not return here."

"Nyx will never allow it!" The words burst from him before he could stop them.

"Nyx always allows free will. As her former High Priestess, I know without any doubt that she will allow you to choose to travel _in spirit_ to the Otherworld," Neferet said slyly. "Remember, Kalona, my true love, if you ensure Zoey's death, you will be removing the last impediment to us reigning side by side. You and I will be powerful beyond imagining in this world of modern marvels. Think of it— we will subjugate humans and bring back the reign of vampyres with all the beauty and passion and limitless power that means. The earth will be ours. We will, indeed, give new life to the glorious past!"

Kalona knew she was playing on his weaknesses. Silently, he cursed himself for allowing her to have learned too much about his deepest desires. He'd trusted her, so Neferet knew that because he wasn't Erebus he could never truly rule beside Nyx in the Otherworld, and he was driven to re- create as much of what he'd lost here in this modern world.

"You see, my love, when you consider it logically, it is only right that you follow Zoey and sever the link between her soul and her body. Doing so simply serves your ultimate desires." Neferet spoke nonchalantly, as if the two of them were discussing the choice of material for her latest gown.

"How am I even to find Zoey's soul?" He tried to match her matter of fact tone. "The Otherworld is a realm so vast, only the gods and goddesses can traverse it."

Neferet's bland expression tightened, making her cruel beauty terrible to behold. "Do not pretend you don't have a connection to her soul!" The Tsi Sgili immortal drew a deep breath. In a more reasonable tone, she continued, "Admit it, my love; you could find Zoey even if no one else could. What is your choice, Kalona? To rule on earth at my side, or to remain a slave to the past?"

"I choose to rule. I will always choose to rule," he said without hesitation.

As soon as he spoke, Neferet's eyes changed. The green within them became totally engulfed in scarlet. She turned the glowing orbs on him— holding, entrapping, entrancing. "Then hear me, Kalona, Fallen Warrior of Nyx, by my oath I shall keep your body safe. When Zoey Redbird, fledging High Priestess of Nyx, is no more, I swear to you I will remove these dark chains and allow your spirit to return. Then I will take you to the rooftop of our castle on Capri and let the sky breathe life and strength into you so that you will rule this realm as my consort, my protector, _my Erebus_." As Kalona watched, helpless to stop her, Neferet drew one long, pointed fingernail across the palm of her right hand. Cupping the blood that pooled there, she held her hand up, offering. "By blood I claim this power; by blood I bind this oath." All around her, Darkness stirred and descended on her palm, writhing, shivering, drinking. Kalona could feel the draw of that Darkness. It spoke to his soul with seductive, powerful whispers.

_"Yes!" _The word was a moan torn deep from his throat as Kalona yielded himself to the greedy Darkness.

When Neferet continued, her voice was magnified, swollen with power. "It is your own choice that I have sealed this oath by blood with Darkness, but should you fail me and break it—"

"I will not fail."

Her smile was unworldly in its beauty; her eyes roiled with blood. "If you, Kalona, Fallen Warrior of Nyx, break this oath and fail in my sworn quest to destroy Zoey Redbird, fledgling High Priestess of Nyx, I shall hold dominion over your spirit for as long as you are an immortal."

The answering words came unbidden by him, evoked by the seductive Darkness, which for centuries he'd chosen over Light. "If I fail, you shall hold dominion over my spirit for as long as I am an immortal."

"Thus I have sworn." Again Neferet slashed her palm, creating a bloody X in her flesh. The copper scent wafted to Kalona like smoke rising from fire as she again raised her hand to Darkness. "Thus it shall be!" Neferet's face twisted in pain as Darkness drank from her again, but she didn't flinch— didn't move until the air around her pulsed, bloated with her blood and her oath.

Only then did she lower her hand. Her tongue snaked out, licking the scarlet line and ending the bleeding. Neferet walked to him, bent, and gently placed her hands on either side of his face, much as he had held the human boy before delivering his deathblow. He could feel Darkness thrumming around and within her, a raging bull waiting eagerly for his mistress's command.

Her blood-reddened lips paused just short of touching his. "With the power that rushes through my blood, and by the strength of the lives I have taken, I command you, my delicious threads of Darkness, to pull this Oath Bound immortal's soul from his body and speed him to the Otherworld. Go and do as I order, and I swear I will sacrifice to you the life of an innocent you have been unable to taint. So thee for me, I mote it be!"

Neferet drew in a deep breath, and Kalona saw the dark threads she'd summoned slither between her full, red lips. She inhaled Darkness until she was swollen with it, and then she covered his mouth with hers and, with that blackened, blood- tainted kiss, blew Darkness within him with such force that it ripped his already wounded soul from his body. As his soul shrieked in soundless agony, Kalona was forced up, up, and into the realm from which his Goddess had banished him, leaving his body lifeless, chained, Oath Bound by evil, and at the mercy of Neferet.

_**WE DID NOT WRITE THIS!!!!!!!! THE CASTS WROTE THIS: IT IS THE ACTUAL FIRST CHAPTER, WE DON'T OWN IT, NOR ARE WE TRYING TO TAKE CREDIT FOR WHAT ISN'T OURS.**_

**Chapter Two (we wrote this, but we don't own it):**

KPOV (Kolana's point of view):

I felt my body drifting further and further away. Was I dying? _I thought that was impossible_. Everything was so clear, like I was flying but my body was on the cold, wet Earth, wings lying there lifelessly. As I floated upward, I noticed Neferet look directly where I was and smirk at me. _Can she see me?_ Apparently, but she didn't seem to care about my state of being. She gazed longingly at my immortally gorgeous body, almost as if purring with lust, and not concern, as she disappeared from my vision.

Colors flashed as I floated higher, deeper into the clouds of fluffy white. I panicked, _I really _am_ dying! That wretched Neferet killed me._ And from that, anger and hate seethed through my body as the colors around me continued to flash and turn into a heavy cloud of blackness. Anger, hate, deception, passion, resentment, rage, animosity, vengeance, grief, everything snaking around my body, engulfing me with its sharp reptilian fangs and swallowing me whole. I hadn't felt so many emotions since I was banished from Nyx's realm. My body spiraled and crashed into a cushion.

A cushion? Wobbling, my arms supported my body, blades of grass protruded through my fingers. Everything spun, but I shook it off as I stood erect. Grass was stuck in my hair and stained everywhere else. I raked my hands through my hair, trying to dislodge the grass there. After succeeding, I check my surroundings.

Everything was just as beautiful as I remembered it. The sky was a perfect, bright blue shade without any clouds to block my vision. The trees in the nearby woods were such a gorgeous, mossy shade of green that it literally gave my body a jolt. It was perfect. Stunning. Amazing, and one could even describe this beautiful paradise as _extravagant_. The grass felt soft underneath my feet, and for one moment, after all of this horrendous chaos, I felt utterly at peace with myself, despite my horrible deeds that were done in the past.

ZPOV (Zoey's point of view):

"Hey, Zo?" Heath called from somewhere that felt far away from me. "Zo, babe, you gotta wake up. I know I said you don't _belong_ in Otherworld, but I never said I didn't like that you're here. Zo?" I felt something shake my arm. I tried to look around, but I couldn't see anything because of the overpowering blackness. _Do I even have an arm?_ Slowly, I felt color begin to return to me, and I opened my eyes. As before, the sun was so bright that it should have hurt me to the point of screaming in absolute agony. But here, I guessed, in Otherworld, that wasn't the case.

"Yeah?" My words came out like a gargling dog as I struggled from the darkness that threatened to take over me, to control me.

"Zo! Babe, you passed out on me." Heath grinned and patted my shoulder while shaking his head. He jumped up from crouching on his knees, no longer concerned. "You had me worried there for a minute."

I sat up, expecting to feel the familiar dizziness and pounding in my head from passing out, but it never came. I tentatively stood, still concerned and on edge about this. I had never experienced anything like this before. It was like an animal getting it's first bath.

All the darkness dissipated from within me as i breathed in the smell of the lake and the meadow surrounding me. Heath jutted a fishing pole towards me but I shook my head. "I think we should go explore," I started to say until Heath took my hand in his and smiled brightly. "Sure, babe," he interrupted. "This place is like, limitless! Goes on forever." I giggled; I just couldn't control it as it spilled relentlessly out from my lips. Soon my giggles turned to sobs and I hunched over as if I got punched in my stomach.

"Zo?" Heath's voice was thick with worry. He crouched beside me and engulfed me in his arms.

"I-I can't," I sniffed," I don't want to leave you but I also want to see and be with my friends!" I wailed like a child. Major snot and everything slowly started dripping from my nose. I wiped it on the back of my hand absently.

"It's okay... Hey, it's alright. We'll find a way to work this out." But in contrast to his soothing voice, his expression was anxious, worried, unsure.

I sniffled. "Yeah, you're right." My voice cracked. I shook my head. "This isn't helping anything. Let's go explore Otherworld." I tried to say confidently, but it came out all sad and half-hearted.

"Okay." Heath dragged out the word, looking at me like I was going to go crazy any minute. Well, that is, if I wasn't already crazy.

"No, I'm okay. Let's go." I said, trying to reassure him.

"Alright, babe. Whatever you say." We entwined our fingers together and walked into the nearby woods, away from the lake.

KPOV (Kalona's point of view):

After that moment of lovely peace, I began to worry. How would I get my body back _without_ killing my A-ya, my Zoey, for all eternity? But even if I did decide to complete Neferet's dastardly plan, would Nyx find me here? Of course, she already knew I was here, but would she _do_ anything about it...?

I sighed softly. So many things to do, so many complications. I decided to search for someone, anyone, preferably Zoey, to help me find a solution to all of my problems. But, I couldn't see Nyx. I felt too ashamed to be anywhere near her, after everything that had happened to me following my banishment. But why would she banish me for loving her too much? Love was pure. It was a wonderful thing. But then I thought bitterly to myself, _except when your love tears your soul in half, which causes you to embrace evil._

No, I would find Zoey. She was kind, forgiving... and beautiful.

I closed my eyes, trying to listen to see if spirit would guide me like it did so many centuries ago. Nothing. I tried again, this time harder. I felt something. It was like a pull, telling me where she was. But, at the same time, it was like I was still clueless where she was. I continued concentrating on spirit with my eyes shut tightly, following wherever it decided to take me.

I headed straight for the woods.

ZPOV (Zoey's point of view):

My hand was tight around his as the two of us meandered around the thin forest of vegetation. The rims of my eyes were a deep rosy red and snot still trickled down my face, but Heath kept a tight hold around my waist and led me around. The wind rustled our hair while leaves crackled from prey animals in every direction. My stomach lurched with fear, "Um, Heath, let's go that way," I gestured roughly. Moving quickly aside, my gut began calming down.

Looking through my peripheral vision, I noticed a young woman watching us from behind a tree. I stopped short. She looked _exactly_ like me. I knew Heath had noticed this too because of his dropped jaw and bulged eyes. He grasped my hand tighter.

"U-we-tsi-a-ge-ya," The girl said. "U-we-tsi-a-ge-ya!" She repeated, this time more forcefully. She beckoned us with her outstretched hand. Despite another gut feeling, I followed, utterly mesmerized by her spell she had cast upon us. Or so I thought...

KPOV (Kalona's point of view):

As I strode toward the woods, I saw a flash. Not like the flashes I had seen as I was transported to Otherworld, but the kind of flash you saw when someone ran past you with inhuman speed. I whipped my head to where I thought it was.

And then I stopped, my heart melting to a feeling of distant warmth that I hadn't felt in years since my banishment from Nyx. It was _her_. Zoey. I smiled, and joyfully shouted, "Zoey!"

She turned and smiled. Then she whispered across the field to my ears, and only mine, "Catch me if you can, my love." Then she darted into the woods. I sprinted right after her. After running like this for some time, I could barely make out her form because she was so far away from me. I pounded into the ground harder, faster. I caught up to her somewhat just as I started to see her body dissolving right before my eyes. I couldn't believe it. Was this some sort of sick joke?

No, it wasn't. She completely dissolved. Where was she? "Zoey!" I yelled to the trees surrounding me. As cold tears started to ooze out of my eyes, I blindly started searching for my little red bird.

ZPOV (Zoey's point of view):

My clone zig zagged between the trees. The bark seemed to be closing in on me, the shadows becoming more tinted the longer I sprinted after my impostor. My heart was hammering against my rib cage. _Almost there_, I kept chanting to myself in my head, getting to the point of collapsing. In one odd moment the other me dashed with inhumane speed into even thicker vegetation and just... disappeared. I skidded to a stop, Heath was gone as well.

In the opposite direction the leaves rustled. "Heath?" I panted, my face red from the wind slapping my face. And what happened next just about literally gave me a heart attack. "My little red bird," an oh-so familiar voice called out to me. My blood stopped cold. "No," I muttered under my breath. "Please no." Before I knew anything, his warm skin was embracing my chilled one and my mind went blank.


End file.
